Your Nerdy Best Friend

Apps for Your Health

One of the best parts of my job is when I ask audience members for their favorite apps and tech tools. Today’s apps for your health come from session participants. They sounded so intriguing and came with such strong recommendations that I just had to put them together into a list for you guys.

Doctor On Demand I’m sure you’ve heard about tele-medicine, where the doctors and nurses literally “phone it in” when it comes to health care, offering services via phone and video conferencing.A participant told an amazing story about Doctor On Demand. She was on an extended business trip when she caught strep throat, which she had contracted many times before. She knew what it was and how she needed to treat it, but it was impossible for her to find time to sneak away to find an urgent care clinic on the road — and she had no idea where to go for care.A friend recommended that she download Doctor On Demand, an app that lets you connect to general physicians, pediatricians, mental health professionals and more. Within minutes of downloading the app and registering, she was talking to a verified physician via video. The doctor asked her to point the camera toward her throat, quizzed her about symptoms and agreed with her self diagnosis.

Within an hour of downloading the app, she was on her way to the airport with a stop at a pharmacy to get the prescription she needed.

The cost of a “visit” starts at $40, and some insurances will cover the services. You can also schedule calls with mental health professionals for counseling or medication, and they have specialists for children and pregnant patients.

CareZone At another presentation, an audience member told us about CareZone, an app that organizes your medical information. The best feature, she said, was the ability to scan prescriptions into the app. CareZone then reminds you about refills and helps remind you to take your pills. What’s more, you can keep track of other people’s prescriptions and health info — a wonderful feature for those of us who are keeping tabs on elderly parents or kids.

Allergy Alert Today an audience member shared Allergy Alert, an app that gives you the pollen count and allergy outlook for your current location. She said the app was wonderful to help her manage her kid’s allergies.

GoodRx I’ve been meaning to share this tool with you guys for a while. Last year an audience member alerted me to this app, and I’ve just recently started to use it.GoodRx helps you identify pills and understand their effects, but the best feature is the comparison tool that searches the prices of your prescription at area pharmacies and lets you know where it’ll be cheapest.